Gatos tracksters star at Arcadia

By Mike Barnhart, for Silicon Valley Community Newspapers

Posted:
04/08/2013 07:32:39 PM PDT

Updated:
04/08/2013 07:32:40 PM PDT

Each spring some of the nation's best track and field athletes join California's best runners, jumpers and throwers for a two-day competition at Arcadia High, about 25 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Los Gatos was among the local teams that traveled to the 46th annual Arcadia Invitational on April 5-6, hoping that the elite competition at the prestigious, mid-season trackfest would bring out the best in them. And the Wildcats were not disappointed.

The girls 400-meter relay team of junior Greta Wagner, senior Rachel Staab, freshman Caice Lanovaz and junior Hannah Chen ran a season best 48.23, the best time in the Central Coast Section this season. Running against seven teams from the Southern Section and Newark Memorial of the East Bay, the Wildcats won one of seven open division races Saturday afternoon and placed third out of 58 teams.

Los Gatos junior Madeline Fagan and South Pasadena's Claire Kieffer-Wright, who share the state high jump lead at 5 feet, 10.75 inches, both cleared 5-10 to share first place at Arcadia.

Wagner, whose pole vault of 13-0.25 at last month's Stanford Invitational leads the CCS, jumped 12-7 last Saturday, tying for third place in the invitational flight with Presentation junior Taylor Jaques. Westmont senior Keren Hendel PR'd with 12-1 to tie Emma McCarthy of Presentation for fifth place. The four local vaulters helped push Santa Margarita's Kaitlyn Merritt (13-8) to new meet and U.S. sophomore records.

Los Gatos junior Carly Heffernan won an earlier section of the pole vault, clearing a personal best 11-7.

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Senior Danielle Katz ran the "seeded" mile run, a 17-runner contest that featured eight from out-of-state. A Utah girl won in 4:56 and was one of four to run sub-5 minutes. Katz ran 5:01.75, which converts to a 5:00 for 1,600 meters and ranks sixth in the CCS.

Chris Foster finished second in the Rising Stars flight of the boys mile. Racing against 10 other sophomores and two freshmen, he clocked 4:22.84, about five seconds faster than his previous best of 4:28.08. Foster's time ranks third in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic league and 11th in the CCS.

Earlier in the week, Los Gatos swept a meet at Monta Vista. The girls improved to 4-0 in El Camino Division meets by beating the Matadors 92-25, while the boys moved to 3-1 with a 98-24 win.

Katz (800, 1,600) and Lanovaz (100 hurdles, triple jump) were double winners for the girls. Sophomore Melina Moore won the discus and took second in the shot put and high jump.